Includes bibliographical references and index

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Comstockery : 1873 ; Limits of the law ; Contraceptive entrepreneurs ; Black-market birth control -- From smut to science : Salute to prophylaxis ; Medical fit ; Feminine hygiene ; Condom kings -- Medicalization of contraceptives : Developing the pill ; Pill in practice ; Searching for something better ; Epilogue : the contraceptive conundrum

"A down-and-out sausage-casing worker by day who turned surplus animal intestines into a million-dollar condom enterprise at night: inventors who fashioned cervical caps out of watch springs: and a mother of six who kissed photographs of the inventor of the Pill - these are just a few of the fascinating individuals who make up the history of contraceptives in America. Scholars of birth control typically frame this history as one of physicians, lawyers, and political activists. But in Devices and Desires, Andrea Tone breaks new ground by showing what it was really like to produce, buy, and use contraceptives during a century of profound social and technological change."--BOOK JACKET

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